The Canoe in Canadian Cultures, eds. John Jennings, Bruce W. Hodgins, Doreen Small

Not just for canoeists, this book is a definitive collection of essays falling under the rubric of its title, rich with illustrations and anecdotes, facts, theories, daydreams and scholarship. Among the essays are a lovely presentation by James Raffan of Bill Mason’s place in what should never be described as merely a sub-culture when it is so indelibly inscribed in our collective experience, and one by the incomparable Bruce Hodgins, worth reading for the title, alone: “The Canoe as Chapeau, The Role of the Portage....” This book originates in a collaboration between Trent University and the Canadian Canoe Museum and speaks eloquently for both.